Already millions lost due to extreme drought in Belgium

During the months of March, April and May, there was much less precipitation than usually. The current month, June, is also very dry so far. Very warm weather has been forecast for this week. The influence on the cultivations is large, and there are many complaints from the potato and fruit sector. In Flanders, the potato sector is already talking about nearly 15 million euro lost. For all agricultural products combined, the Flemish government is talking about nearly 190 million euro.

Last week, Profel sounded the alarm about the drought. European processors of tinned vegetables and of dried or frozen vegetables are worried about the impact of the hot and dry weather on the spring and summer cultivations. The lack of rain, combined with high temperatures during the winter and spring, was bad for crops in many parts of Europe. Important cultivation areas in Belgium, Italy and France were affected by this. Some national authorities have taken measures to limit the supply of water.

According to Romain Cools of Belgapom, especially early potatoes in sandy soil were affected by the heat and drought. “These early potatoes bridge the old and new season, and are contracted in moderation. It mostly concerns vegetable growers in West-Flanders for who these potatoes are an in-between cultivation. This region issued an irrigation ban just last week, which can influence the yield of potato and vegetable crops even more. In early potatoes, people are talking about a yield loss of 25 per cent.” Romain continues: “As for the storage harvest, it’s still too early to draw conclusions. The months of July and August are – after perfect planting conditions – decisive for this. The effect on the market is definitely there: the forward market will shoot up, and many growers are hoping to sell their remaining old harvest for absolute record prices, even though prices have been high throughout the season. But in the meantime, supplies of potatoes from other areas in Europe are starting,” Romain concludes.

Potato grower and trader Bart Nemegheer says the high temperatures are damaging to the potatoes. “The plants become stressed and start flowering excessively. Because of this, the plants will have far fewer tubers.” He explains: “The drought is occurring during the tuber-forming. You normally see runners that become larger at the end, which results in a new potato. When the period of drought lasts too long, the plant will enter survival mode, and will reject the runners. It will then not have enough water to let them grow. The plant will therefore have fewer tubers, which means a smaller yield.”

Another problem, according to Bart, is that waxy varieties will also become mealy. “They’re not getting enough water. Because of that, the dry dust content increases, resulting in a mealy potato.” Unfortunately, the end is not yet in sight, according to him. “Everyone is anxiously watching the weather forecast. Hopefully it’ll start raining soon, because there’s hardly any water. In the Netherlands there’s plenty of water because they are below sea levels. That’s not the case in Belgium, we are above sea levels.” This year, the industry devoted itself to an increase in volume, but chances are high there won’t be much product. “Practically everyone has invested in higher productions, we’re talking about thousands of tonnes of potatoes. If everyone’s running at full capacity, we really need that increased yield. Each day of drought means the yield decreases by percentages. It’s already too late for the early potatoes.” Last season, some of the growers couldn’t supply the contracted volume to industry. “They often also have contracts based on the conditions of the previous year with factories. So they’ll still have to supply the outstanding part. The disaster for these producers is even worse than last year. No one expected such a difficult season two years in a row.” The traders who have contracts with the factories are also at their wits’ end. “They want to enter into talks with the industry again, to say it can’t go on like this. These circumstances are beyond anyone’s control, they can’t be blamed for this disaster. Growers can’t supply more than they already do. There has to be a line somewhere.”

The weather decides the yields, and we cannot control that. According to Bart, we have to deal with climate change much more seriously. “In Spain, this kind of weather would be normal, but not in Belgium. We are getting a Mediterranean climate here. People often talk about the magical year 1976. That was a disastrous year, the driest in our history. But we’ll probably see more years like that in future. We didn’t have enough rain throughout the winter. Scientists have been warning us for years: abundant rainfall and longer periods of drought will occur more and more often. The extremes will be larger. We’ll have to bear that in mind in future.”

The impact isn’t just felt in potatoes, vegetables are also in trouble. According to Leen Jolling of the Boerenbond, the problems are first and foremost in spinach and cauliflower. “And I have also heard that young fruit trees are starting to suffer due to the drought, but as long as growers are allowed to irrigate, this shouldn’t result in serious problems,” she says. Belgian newspaper De Tijd has already mentioned the volume of peas has been halved.